A year ago the Pentagon brought in a policy that freed up 14 thousand new jobs to women in the military. Since then, female personnel have run security operations and carried out house-to-house searches, but are still banned from front-line combat.

But that is about to change.

Officials say the US military is about to end its ban on women serving in front-line combat roles, opening up thousands of fighting jobs to females for the first time.

The decision has been made by outgoing US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.